Fort Worth Independent School District officials have admitted that the district has a literacy crisis.
During a forum hosted by The Fort Worth Report, both Fort Worth ISD Board President Roxanne Martinez and Interim Superintendent Karen Molinar acknowledged that many students are not meeting grade-level standards in reading and English language arts.
“We are definitely in a crisis. And for me it is a ‘do something now,’ but then I also have to plan the system to build the strategies for the long term,” said Molinar.
Molinar stepped into the role after former Fort Worth ISD Superintendent Angélica Ramsey resigned from the position following outrage from parents and teachers over her leadership.
In September, Fort Worth ISD released its unofficial accountability rating, revealing that the district earned a C.
Additionally, a report from the nonprofit organization Fort Worth Education Partnership showed that students in both traditional and charter public schools in Fort Worth are not meeting grade-level standards. The nonprofit’s report showed overall only 35 percent of students in grades three through eight perform at grade level. Fewer than half can read at grade level.
Molinar highlighted just how bad literacy levels are in the district, saying, “We have students sitting in the third grade that are not on grade level. I have kindergarteners right now getting ready to enter the second semester who are not a level they need to be with their sounds and letter recognition. I have eighth grade students from last year, who are ninth graders, getting ready to take an English I EOC for the first time, who are our lowest scoring students on the STAAR test.”
“That’s my urgency right now,” Molinar continued.“That we have to intervene. But we can’t live in intervention.”
Martinez also spoke about the dire literacy situation, saying the board knows they are in a crisis and that “this is a time for transformation.”
“We’re in a place of transformation,” she said. “We’re ready to adopt bold, ambitious goals especially around literacy for all students; that has to be our top priority.”
Martinez explained that the board has taken accountability for the district’s shortfalls and has a plan they will be sharing with the community.
“We know that we’re going to need an evidence-based plan, and that’s what Dr. Molinar and I have,” she said. “We will be bringing those ambitious goals out to the community and we’ll also be sharing more about Dr. Molinar’s plan. But it’s going to take all of us.”
Despite both Molinar and Martinez shedding some light on the issue, other members of the Fort Worth ISD community were not as convinced the problem would be fixed.
“I went. It was extremely upsetting. More poverty pimps & vultures are going to be shown right in the front door of FWISD. Nothing is going to change in the low income schools, they are going to be data mined & experimented on to death. All for profit, poverty pimps,” said resident Hollie Plemons. “They begged for all to blindly support their new decision for FWISD that they didn’t share that much details on vs flowery words.”
“The crisis here in FWISD was done on purpose & now they are coming with the fake cure,” she continued. “The problem with all of this workforce training is that the children will be educated just enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught. Workers don’t overthrow & fight back against a corrupt government but thinkers do.”
“Whole board is going to go along with this plan & continue to ignore the glaringly obvious data, facts & history. Nothing will change. My heart is broken,” Plemons concluded.
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